College Dems make plans to lobby, canvass

Weintana Abraha Guest Writer

Vassar’s chapter of the College Democrats plan to raise students’ involvement and awareness of upcoming local and state elections.

On Tuesday, Oct. 11 there will be a day for phone banks for students across the country to call their local representatives to express opposition to the College Access and Opportunity Act of 2005. This act would mean a large cut to federal aid for college students.
Vassar College Democrats Secretary Kari Kretch ’07 said that they might postpone the Vassar phone banks.

“We’ve had some trouble getting it started.” said Kretch. “I’m not sure if we’re going to participate on the national call in day on Oct. 11, or if we’re going to do it a little later.”

Kretch said that the vote is slated for the end of October, so the College Democrats will schedule the phone banks as soon as possible.

“We’re probably going to set up on the quad or in the College Center and have people that walk by [participate],” said Kretch. “They’ll call their representatives and urge them to oppose the financial aid cuts in student aid.”

Also, the College Democrats are actively supporting Deval Patrick’s campaign for governor of Massachusetts. Patrick would be the first liberal governor after many years of conservatism in his area.
“We were planning on going to Massachusetts to do actual canvassaing for him, like going door-to-door,” said Kretch. “There’s really no hurry on that, since the primary is not until next September, but we did want to do it before the weather got bad…We’ll either do it soon or in the spring.”

College Democrats also plan on opposing Republican Congresswoman Sue Kelly’s re-election campaign for next year’s 19th United States Congressional District seat.

College Democrats plan to canvass the neighborhood to gain voter support for Democratic candidates like Diane Jablonski, who is running for Duchess County controller, and former Vassar professor Fred Bunnell, who is running for a seat in the County Legislature. College Democrats are actively endorsing all of the Democratic candidates in Poughkeepsie’s elections in November.

College Democrats have several other events for activism planned, both on campus and off. “I know a lot of people at Vassar are very liberal, but maybe aren’t happy with the democrats,” said Kretch. “Those especially are the people we want coming to our meetings. A lot of us feel the same way, and we understand that we need a strong positive image of the Democratic party if we have any chance of defeating what’s in office right now.

“[We’re] trying to get people involved and interested and excited with local politics,” added College Democrats President Kelly Peterman ’07. “[We are] always open to anything that someone might want to do.”

Additional reporting by Anita Varma, Senior Editor